Jesus on Jeopardy

"I am living bread that came down from heaven," Jesus said. "The bread that I give you is myself, and if you eat it, you'll live forever." The people got angry. "How can He give us Himself to eat?" they asked. Jesus answered: "If you don't eat my body and drink my blood, you'll have no life in you."

Have you ever watched the TV quiz show "Jeopardy"? On that show, the host gives the answers, and people have to guess the questions that go with them. If the host says, "It has a trunk and big ears," the contestant has to say, "What is an elephant?"

Jesus would probably be a big fan of "Jeopardy." In this week's Gospel (John 6:51-58), He gave an answer to something people didn't understand yet!

The fun part of a show like "Jeopardy" is that it's different than people expect. Most people think someone will ask them a question they'll have to answer to win money; "Jeopardy" does it the other way around.

So did Jesus: In the Gospel story, people got upset because He talked about eating His body and drinking His blood, but they didn't know about Communion yet! It wasn't until the Last Supper that Jesus showed people how to remember Him with Communion bread and wine. Today, we call this sacrament "the Eucharist."

It can be fun to guess the question to go with an answer, but it's also confusing. When Jesus talked about Communion before teaching people what it was, He didn't mean to confuse them -- He meant to give them a peek at what was coming up. When it was finally time for people to share Communion, Jesus wanted them to remember the answer He'd given and say, "I know this question: `What is Communion?'"

(8/14/03) [[In-content Ad]]